AlterNet.org: Manuel Pastorhttps://www.alternet.org/authors/manuel-pastor
enState of Resistance: California in the Age of Trumphttps://www.alternet.org/election-2016/state-resistance-california-age-trump
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The battle begins now. </div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p>For the past two decades, California has been on the cutting edge of social and economic change in America. Now, with Donald Trump about to enter the Oval Office, the Golden State is poised to take on a new role: leader of the anti-Trump resistance.</p><p>California’s frontline position in opposing Trump is not merely a reflection of its deep-blue politics. On many of the flashpoint issues expected to define Trump’s presidency, California has a tremendous amount at stake. As the new administration tries to reverse the significant gains made on immigrant rights, climate change, criminal justice and workers’ rights, to name a few subjects, many of the fiercest battles in the country will be fought up and down the state.</p><p>Can California lead the resistance to Trump’s right-wing agenda <em>and</em> continue to be in the vanguard of advancing progressive change? Yes – and in fact, the two are inextricably linked, both tactically and symbolically. In the months and years to come, California must become like the best sports teams, capable of playing defense and offense at the highest level.</p><p><strong>Why California Must Lead</strong></p><p>No state rivals California either in the dimensions of its population or economy. At just under 40 million people, California has more residents than the nation’s 20 least densely populated states put together. Its economy is the sixth-largest in the world, trailing only the U.S., China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.</p><p>California is also home to several of the nation’s most powerful and influential industries, including high tech and entertainment. Both Silicon Valley and Hollywood wield enormous economic clout, and are key shapers of consumer habits and cultural norms.</p><p>Why is this significant? Because California has the ability to exert enormous pressure on everything from markets and mores to politics and policy, a position it has ably demonstrated in its leadership role in addressing climate change, despite federal inaction.</p><p>Size and economic strength by themselves are not enough. But over the past 20 years, California has acquired another key comparative advantage: It has developed some of the most innovative social movements in the country – and exported them to cities across the U.S. These movements have secured rights for immigrants, boosted worker pay, protected LGBTQ Californians and pushed the state forward on addressing climate change. They will be called upon to use their organizing prowess to hold the line against Trump even as they continue to push the envelope of social and economic justice in California and beyond.</p><p>California advocates have succeeded in large part by mobilizing an incredibly diverse set of stakeholders. This will pay big dividends now, as very disparate groups of people – immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, the poor, women, communities already suffering the effects of climate change – see their interests threatened by the Trump administration. The experience of working together across racial, ethnic, geographic and class lines will lend itself to the creation of even broader alliances – so broad that California could be a key base for the biggest and most diverse progressive coalition the nation has ever seen.</p><p><strong>Flashpoint Issues</strong></p><p>While California’s anti-Trump coalition will need to develop the capacity to fight many battles at once, one initial front will surely be immigration. If Trump makes good on his campaign promises, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants will be faced with deportation, many of them DREAMers protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).</p><p>The economic, social and human costs of disrupting the lives of so many Californian families are staggering. Recognizing this, state and local leaders have vowed to resist efforts targeting immigrants, setting the stage for high-stakes confrontations with the new administration.</p><p>No less dramatic will be the battles over climate change. Governor Jerry Brown has vowed to oppose any efforts to roll back the state’s pioneering environmental policies (including a promise to have California launch its own satellites to gather information on global warming!), and he will be joined by a broad-based group of business leaders and activists.</p><p>Another flashpoint will be workers’ rights. Fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder is likely to be the new labor secretary: He is on the record as opposing increases in the minimum wage and expansion of overtime pay and is clearly no ally of those who seek to rein in the abuse of independent contractors and gig-economy workers. In California, the nation’s strongest labor movement, together with community and business allies, has enacted some of the most far-reaching worker protections in the country; we will need to stand firm on what we’ve won and stand strong against an assault on labor rights.</p><p>More broadly, unions face an existential crisis under a President Trump. Just last year, the Supreme Court heard a key case initiated out of the Golden State, <em>Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association</em>, in which anti-labor advocates sued to eliminate the ability of unions to collect dues for collective bargaining. Down one justice, the Court deadlocked – but since a tie sets no national precedent, another version of the same sort of case is widely expected to come up once Trump fills the open seat. Californians will have to be among those opposing any Court nominee likely to ignore worker, minority or women’s rights.</p><p>Another bone of likely contention: Trump can also be expected to push hard on a law-and-order agenda that will fly in the face of efforts to reform the criminal justice system. After recognizing its own disastrous infatuation with over-incarceration, California has embraced recent initiatives to reduce the sentences of nonviolent offenders and to ban labor market discrimination against former felons. This will be another policy battleground and will provide the opportunity to showcase a national counter-example to Trump’s fear-driven attempt to strengthen law enforcement at the expense of civil rights.</p><p><strong>The Challenges Ahead</strong></p><p>While California is well positioned to lead the charge against Trump, the success of these efforts is not inevitable. The challenges ahead include the risks of factionalism, the rise of extremism and the need to craft a new relationship with business forces.</p><p>When Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, left-of-center political forces fragmented badly, expediting the rise of conservatism, which in turn has dominated national politics ever since. California’s progressive movement does not appear to be headed in this direction, but Trump has proven himself a master at dividing and conquering, and he will no doubt pursue the same strategy as president. He will also attack on many fronts, creating a strain on resources and the possibility of destructive in-fighting.</p><p>And although California may currently vote progressive, it is also no stranger to extremism. The descendants of the John Birch Society are alive and well, the Tea Party has its Golden State adherents and it’s worth recalling that Rush Limbaugh got his talk-radio start in Sacramento. With Trump in the White House, the right in general and the politics of hate in particular may well get a boost. The inland and rural regions of California have been the traditional breeding grounds for white nationalism, but the alt right is also operating in the state’s urban population centers.</p><p>Finally, some business leaders, lured by tax cuts, deregulation and union-busting, will be supportive of the Trump agenda even if they are repulsed by the anti-immigrant and anti-trade rhetoric. Other business leaders have a more balanced perspective, recognizing that a strong and sustainable economy requires that wages rise, racial inclusion occurs and the planet is protected. Progressives will have to figure out where alliances are possible and effective. This is particularly important in California, where some “business Democrats” often side with corporate lobbies on critical environmental and labor legislation. While several such elected officials found themselves unelected in 2016, others may be emboldened by Trump and his brand of scorched-earth capitalism. This could pose a serious risk to progressive priorities, even with the Democratic super-majority in the state legislature.</p><p><strong>Looking Forward</strong></p><p>As Trump and his allies wage war on all fronts, a weariness may set in – and along with it a tendency to take refuge in California’s different political reality. That would be a very costly mistake. Not only must California help the country fight back, it must not take its own prolific advances for granted.</p><p>After all, it was only two decades ago that we were convulsed by our own anti-immigrant hysteria in the form of Proposition 187, a law that sought to strip all services, including education, from undocumented immigrants. It passed with an overwhelming majority, and the state soon followed with an electoral attack on affirmative action and aggressive efforts to criminalize black and Latino youth. And even as the nation voted for Obama in 2008, California voted for Proposition 8, stripping the rights of same-sex couples to marry.</p><p>We’ve come out of our political morass, not just because time has passed and demographics have shifted, but also because of a new hard-fought and hard-forged politics and social compact. With the nation now experiencing its own “Prop 187 moment,” we have a responsibility to help others avoid our own mistakes and accelerate the country’s path to a more inclusive future.</p><p>We will also need to lead by example. For all of California’s political progress, we still have one of the highest levels of inequality in the country, some of the most polluted communities, huge shortages of affordable housing, a massive homeless population, ongoing police brutality and one of the nation’s highest number of people caught up in the criminal justice system.</p><p>Even in the Trump era, California can tackle these problems – but it will require old relationships and new allies, solid institutions and innovative strategies, long-standing-values and a fresh and compelling vision of our future. All this will require a clarity of purpose, a level of passion and strength of resolve that few of us have been called on to summon.</p><p>So get ready. The battle begins now.</p><p> </p><p> </p> Sat, 21 Jan 2017 12:40:00 -0800Manuel Pastor, Danny Feingold, Capital and Main1070810 at https://www.alternet.orgElection 2016Election 2016californialiberalismstate's rightsfederalismRichmond: Looking to a New, Greener Futurehttps://www.alternet.org/environment/richmond-looking-new-greener-future
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Richmond, California is working on a just transition from the dirty industries that dominate the community, to cleaner and greener sources of energy.</div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p><em>Editor's Note: This is part of series, <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap</a>, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice.</em></p><p><em>This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>The Chevron Corporation is among the oldest “residents” of Richmond, California, but Reverend Kenneth Davis is looking forward to a day when the community is not dependent upon the oil giant.</p><p>“Chevron’s been here for over 100 years, but if I lived in a perfect world I would have a world where we didn’t have to be so dependent upon as we are on petroleum. I would have a green world; one that we could use solar and wind and all the other technologies; we’d be able to exist without filling up our gas tank,” says Davis.</p><p>In Richmond, community members like Davis are attempting to curb the negative effects of the petrochemical industry in their city by striving for a <em>just transition</em>. This policy framework addresses environmental, social and economic inequalities by using community-based planning to create long-term, sustainable alternatives to environmentally-damaging industries. Ultimately, community members would like to see the city turn away from its dependence on the fossil fuel industry and its deleterious health effects while providing improved living and working environments.</p><p>The <em>just transition</em> goal gained momentum in 2007 when the neighborhoods surrounding Chevron’s oil refinery organized to oppose the company’s proposal to expand its oil refining capacity. Because of increased energy demand, increased costs and anxiety about oil supply, oil companies are turning to “unconventional,” heavier crude oil with higher sulfur content which also generates more pollution during refining.</p><p><a href="http://archive.apen4ej.org/">Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)</a>, <a href="http://www.cbecal.org/">Communities for a Better Environment</a> (CBE) and <a href="http://www.westcountytoxicscoalition.org/">West County Toxics Coalition</a> collaborated to oppose Chevron’s expansion in the belief that it would make the community’s survival dependent on the production of this dirtier crude oil without having the technology to reduce pollution levels.</p><p>Despite the opposition, the city council approved the Chevron expansion proposal. So the coalition of environmental justice advocates responded with a lawsuit in 2008 and argued that Chevron failed to disclose its true intentions to refine higher-sulfur crude oil and thus, did not provide proper assessment and mitigation of health impacts under the Environmental Impact Report. In 2010, the California Court of Appeals deemed Chevron’s Environmental Review Report inadequate, stopping the expansion in its tracks.</p><p>APEN executive director, Roger Kim says the Chevron victory marked the beginning of a new future for Richmond.</p><p>“The expansion of Chevron and the infrastructure that they were trying to put into the ground would have kept Richmond locked into dirty oil for generations to come. We needed to head that off in order to even have the semblance of a future where Richmond could be cleaner and more environmentally just," says Kim. </p><p>There is no clear formula for a just transition, but Richmond’s strategy has four basic tenets: first, a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by major industrial polluters; second, community-led city planning that creates modes of sustainable and equitable economic development; third, political structures that are committed to the plight of local residents; and fourth, developing alternative modes of energy generation and consumption – all of which help to redistribute power and build a more sustainable community.</p><p>The community’s relationship with Chevron is complicated. The Chevron Oil Refinery in Richmond was established in 1902 and is the oldest and third largest refinery in California, producing nearly 250,000 barrels per day. The refinery also provides between 1,950 and 2,460 jobs, making it the largest employer and property tax payer in the city.</p><p>Former CBE organizer Jessica Tovar acknowledges this relationship. She says this dependence on the Chevron Corporation is why the community cannot merely oppose the refinery, but must work to find alternatives.</p><p>“We are interested in having alternative forms of energy and fuel, and we should be spending more of our time and resources researching those and making those happen in our community,” says Tovar.</p><p>Richmond is an ethnically diverse community composed of nearly 80 percent people of color, including African-Americans, Laotians and Latinos. It is also a community where more than a third of the city’s households earn less than $35,000 annually. Meanwhile, Richmond children are hospitalized for asthma at a much higher than average rate and adults experience higher than average rates of heart disease, cancer and stroke.</p><p>It’s not just Chevron, of course: nearly 350 industrial sites including auto dismantlers, chemical manufacturers, waste incinerators and the Chevron facility surround the community, contribute to both greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of air pollution. And many see a direct correlation between these industries and the precarious health of the community. Davis, the reverend and member of East Bay Coalition of Concerned Citizens, says that though he has no issue with capitalist success, the community is suffering.</p><p>“My community is bearing the brunt of their wealth…They take theirs to the bank and I’m a minister and I have to take mine to the graveyard,” says Davis.</p><p>These issues of “cumulative exposure” occur in many low-income communities in California – and have prompted environmental justice groups in both San Diego (Environmental Health Coalition) and Los Angeles (Clean Up, Green Up coalition) to call for separating incompatible land uses and creating “green zones” in which industrial pollutants would be reduced and high quality jobs enhanced.</p><p>Richmond activists are pushing for just that sort of vision, arguing that what’s needed is a “just transition.” APEN and CBE members are taking it upon themselves to become Richmond’s just transition and sustainability planners. Residents have become involved in the city’s <em>General Plan</em> and have most recently included and <em>Energy and Climate Change</em> and <em>Community Health and Wellness</em> elements to the plan.</p><p>Community involvement has also created a political shift in a city that Kim (of APEN) says was largely influenced by Chevron.</p><p>“Richmond, for 100 years, has been a company town. It has been owned by Chevron; they owned the mayor, they owned the city council, they owned the planning commission” says Kim.</p><p>However, in the last city council election in 2010 every candidate that Chevron supported lost, creating a sharp, progressive shift. Kim says this change will set Richmond on a “different path toward a sustainable future and green economy.</p><p>The shift is not merely political; social enterprises have also been gaining ground in Richmond. <a href="http://www.solarrichmond.org/">Solar Richmond</a> was created in 2006 by Richmond resident Michele McGeoy and offers solar installation training for underemployed and low-income residents, staff placement for solar companies and has also created a worker-owned clean energy cooperative.</p><p>Solar Richmond is also supporting the Richmond’s just transition by inspiring youth to participate in the green movement. In partnership with the East Bay Green Jobs Corps, Solar Richmond provides young adults with customer service, sales and outreach skills in addition to solar installation training. “If you teach somebody how to find a rafter in a roof, and how to hang an inverter then they know how to find a rafter in a roof and hang an inverter, but if you teach someone customer service skills and sales skills, and a deep understanding about why this green movement is happening, there are many more doors that will be open in any green company,” says McGeoy.</p><p>Solar Richmond has also worked to include residents and City officials in the move toward a green and equitable economy. With City and Federal support, the company has implemented a solar panel rebate program by providing education and solar installations in low-income neighborhoods. The program has helped Richmond become first for watts per capita and second for total watts generated among Bay Area cities.</p><p>Additionally, the worker-owner cooperative formed by Solar Richmond hires graduates from its ranks to perform commercial-scale solar installations. The co-op business model allows workers to become owners and, according to McGeoy, creates not only a “pathway out of poverty but really into prosperity.”</p><p>Successful green jobs programs are have also gained traction in other parts of the state. The Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC), for instance, trains and employs over 1,000 young adults in rain water collection systems, solar installations, and landscape design programs while also helping them finish high school.</p><p>Another example: <a href="http://scopela.org/">Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education</a> (SCOPE) headed up the APOLLO Alliance – a coalition of community, labor, and environmental organizations – to persuade the City of Los Angeles to pass its first Green Retrofit and Workforce Program in 2006. By 2009, the City began a pilot program that set the goal to retrofit 100 city-owned buildings to conserve energy and keep city workers – who would otherwise be laid off – employed.</p><p>The pieces for a just transition are seemingly falling into place in Richmond and Los Angeles, largely due to grassroots community organizing by those most affected by the effects of climate change. But the need goes well beyond one or two cities: as Kim of APEN notes, “What is missing is making sure that we have policies that really reflect what people in California want, which is policies that are at their center really about addressing the needs of people of color and low-income folks in California.”</p><p> </p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:14:00 -0700Rachel Morello-Frosch , Manuel Pastor, AlterNet728867 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentActivismEnvironmentPersonal Healthclimategaprichmondoilchevronsolargreen energyrenewablesTransit Justice: Providing Service and Shipping Out Greenhouse Gaseshttps://www.alternet.org/environment/transit-justice-providing-service-and-shipping-out-greenhouse-gases
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">How one group aims to increase public transportation especially for those most in need.</div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--><p><em>Editor's Note: This is part of series, <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap</a>, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice.</em></p><p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 25px; ">This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/" style="color: rgb(133, 143, 62); text-decoration: none; ">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>When the regional metropolitan transit authority closed a small section of a local highway in 2011, Angelenos quickly started worrying about “Carmageddon.” The fear was that traffic would spill over into side streets and result in a locked landscape of parked cars – but instead folks just stayed out of their cars for the entire sunny Southern Californian spring weekend. What traffic there was moved smoothly – and the air was that much cleaner.</p><p>While traffic officials are wondering how best to get Angelenos out of their cars for just one day, the <a href="http://www.thestrategycenter.org/project/bus-riders-union">Bus Riders Union (BRU)</a> is looking to boost public transit throughout the year by improving the conditions of public transportation for those low-income residents who have little choice about transit in the first place. By doing so, BRU is addressing fundamental transit equity issues– and getting drivers out of their cars on a more regular basis.</p><p>Founded in 1992, the BRU was among a set of plaintiffs that filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (LA Metro) for neglecting public transportation in low-income areas that served Black, Latino and Asian residents. The suit was successful and the LA Metro was forced to invest $2.7 million to improve bus infrastructure in Los Angeles. Jumping off that platform of civil rights, BRU is now on a mission to improve environmental health and the state of public transportation in the city.</p><p>For example, the BRU is currently in the midst of its <em>Clean Air, Clean Buses, Clean Lungs Campaign</em>, which was started in 2005. It aims to reduce car use in Los Angeles by half, double the MTA’s fleet, ban highway expansion and create bus-only lanes and pedestrian friendly zones throughout the city.</p><p>This is good for the planet since passenger automobiles account for 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in California according to the California Air Resources Board.</p><p>But as BRU Senior Organizer Sunyoung Yang points out, Angelinos with lower-incomes are less likely to have cars, more likely to be dependent on public transit, and therefore less responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Encouraging this kind of good transit behavior would seem to make economic and environmental sense.</p><p>However, we do just the opposite. The last major federal transportation bill passed in 2005 under President George W. Bush funded highway expansion with $228 billion versus just $53 billion for public transit. This trend was maintained with the 2012 transportation bill, which allocated 80 percent of funds to highway expansion and 20 percent to mass transit.</p><p>Moreover, the same population contributing least to greenhouse gas emissions and hurt the most by declining public transit service also typically live in neighborhoods with the worst air quality due to nearby polluting sources, including highways and major roads. Yang points out that this is where the “health and climate aspects intersect.”</p><p>Private cars are not the only sources of transportation-related pollution: low-income communities are surrounded by rail yards, cargo truck routes, distribution centers, and ports which transport consumer goods and leave behind greenhouse gases and other health-damaging pollutants such as particulate matter. In the City of Commerce and off in the Inland Empire, <a href="http://eycej.org/">East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice</a> and the <a href="http://www.ccaej.org/">Center for Community and Environmental Justice</a> are confronting these industries and working with local, regional, and state government to set limits on logistics-related pollutants and shine a light on their climate change and environmental health impacts. Yang points out that the best evidence of these cumulative burdens can be found among public transit riders. “If you get on a typical bus and ask working class bus riders, ‘how many people do you know who have asthma or are suffering from respiratory diseases?’ almost everybody raises their hand.”</p><p>The BRU campaign won a significant victory in 2011 when the Los Angeles City Council approved a 7.7 mile, rush-hour, bus-only lane on Wilshire Boulevard from MacArthur Park in the Eastern part of the city to the westernmost stretch in Santa Monica. Most Angelenos thought dedicated bus lanes were the dreams of fools – particularly on Wilshire, which is one of L.A.’s busiest transportation corridors. But this is exactly where such service is needed. Organizers hope this victory will set a precedent that encourages the provision of efficient bus service in highly congested areas that will motivate drivers who are tired of being stuck in traffic to use public transportation and reward bus riders who are not contributing to the pollution or the congestion.</p><p>The Wilshire Boulevard effort brought together mainstream environmental organizations and environmental justice groups, which helped facilitate a powerful coalition of bus riders, local businesses, neighborhood councils, and hotel, janitorial and restaurant unions whose members use Wilshire Boulevard to commute to the Westside. Yang points out that many residents’ commute times will be reduced by half, making this a victory not only for the environment, but for those most dependent on public transit.</p><p>“That is a significant impact for bus riders, where every minute makes the difference between missing your transfer or arriving on time for a job interview,” says Yang.</p><p>Despite these victories for public transit, bus service cuts have continued even as LA Metro has pushed to fund expensive rail contracts, such as the long anticipated West Side subway, which city officials say will connect the city’s East Side to Santa Monica. “Metro cannibalizes the working class bus system to finance multi-billion dollar rail contracts and real estate developers because it sees bus riders as disposable,” says Yang.</p><p>To fight such inequality, the BRU is advocating for a publicly elected Metro Board. Yang says that such a strategy “could give bus riders the power to push back against these harmful policies.” The BRU is also pushing for its own <em><a href="http://www.thestrategycenter.org/sites/www.thestrategycenter.org/files/bruCAEJFINAL7.14.09.pdf">Clean Air and Economic Justice Plan</a></em> as a way to make Metro Board funding allocations and decisions more accountable to those who depend upon public transit the most. It outlines a multi-tiered countywide bus service network that runs on bus-only lanes, lowers fares and creates long-term jobs.</p><p>Transit justice advocates like the BRU have quite a task ahead of them, but their grassroots victories can mean a win for everyone. As Yang notes: “A viable and just public transit system is measured by how well we uplift even the most vulnerable communities—if our transit system can provide convenient, affordable service for someone without a car, it will for everyone else with more resources.”</p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Wed, 17 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700Rachel Morello-Frosch , Manuel Pastor, AlterNet726265 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentActivismEconomyEnvironmentPersonal HealthclimategapBus Riders UnionMetropolitan Transit AuthorityCalifornia Air Resources Boardtransporationpublic transportationEast Yard Communities for Environmental JusticeCenter for Community and Environmental JusticeClean Air and Economic Justice Planlos angelesCommunities Take Food Justice Into Their Own Hands, One Plot at a Timehttps://www.alternet.org/food/communities-take-food-justice-their-own-hands-one-plot-time
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In some neighborhoods, home gardens are a way to improve food security, environmental responsibility and community engagement one plot at a time.</div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p><em>Editor's Note: This is part of series, <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap</a>, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice. You can read the whole series <a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/climategap">here</a>.</em></p><p><em>This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>While in some neighborhoods, home gardens are a novelty that contributes to the local food movement; in others they are a way to improve food security, environmental responsibility and community engagement one plot at a time.</p><p>3.7 million Californians lack basic food security, which is defined as reliable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. This is despite the fact that 400 agricultural goods and nearly half of all fruits, nuts and vegetables in the U.S. are grown in California.</p><p>The effects of climate change are expected to make access to food increasingly problematic. Crop and livestock production is expected to decrease as extreme weather causes decreased water supply and increased risk for disease and pest invasions. Global food prices have already risen in recent years due to climate change.</p><p>When Charles Mason, Jr. looked out at his Sacramento neighborhood, he realized there was an opportunity to meet the community’s needs for improved food access and environmental quality by planting home and community gardens. “Most people don’t think they know how to change such a huge thing. But to the contrary if everyone did one thing, you would start seeing a significant impact to mitigate the effects of climate change,” says Mason.</p><p>In 2009, Mason founded <a href="http://www.ubuntugreen.org/">Ubuntu Green</a> in the Oak Park neighborhood in Sacramento. Mason set forth to help “green” Oak Park and to educate and empower community members around issues of land use, environmental health justice, transportation, energy efficiency, and access to healthy food. Since then the non-profit has partnered with Sacramento Yard Farmer to create the Edible Garden Campaign, whose goal is to create at least 350 edible home gardens by 2013 to foster more healthy and sustainable eating while also reducing the community’s carbon footprint.</p><p>The campaign is based in low-income and communities of color in the Sacramento region where the effects of increased food prices and food scarcity is felt the greatest. In 2010, almost 15 percent of U.S. households experienced food insecurity. Within that demographic, it is African-Americans, Latinos, children and low-income and single parent households bear the brunt of this.</p><p>One of Mason’s primary goals has been making the issue of healthy, sustainable food and climate change relevant to the communities Ubuntu serves. This, he says begins by creating a conversation about the issues.</p><p>“People start talking about climate change, but unless it is making you sick and you know it is making you sick, [they think] what the hell does it have to do with me? And what can I do about it?” says Mason.</p><p>Ubuntu is an African humanist term that is defined by a sense of world community and accountability to one another. The Edible Garden Campaign was inspired by <a href="http://www.350.org/">350.org</a>, a global organization dedicated to reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. The number 350 was chosen because some scientists conclude that we must reduce our current carbon level from 392 parts per million to 350.</p><p>Growing and consuming local and organic food is reported to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as it reduces vehicles miles traveled (and gas consumed) and provides alternatives to food produced with industrial-scale farm equipment and fertilizers that rely on fossil fuels and pollute our air and water. It’s showing that another type of agriculture is possible even among those with the lowest of incomes.</p><p>Another sort of agriculture is also needed because of the way that fertilizers and other climate change impacts are resulting in contaminated water and lower water tables across the Central Valley. The <a href="http://www.communitywatercenter.org/about.php?content=Programs">Community Water Center</a> and the <a href="http://www.communitywatercenter.org/water-valley.php?content=AGUA">AGUA Coalition</a>, based in Visalia, are working to ensure reliable and affordable access to clean water in the face increasing contamination from large produce and livestock farms and decreased snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While Ubuntu Green works to reduce our reliance on industrial-scale agriculture, CWC and the AGUA Coalition are pushing for major agricultural polluters to clean up their act. The organizations’ work complements each other in confronting the climate challenge. </p><p>As for Ubuntu Green, its campaign has not merely improved the health of the community by reducing its carbon footprint. It has also helped households and communities combat the fluctuation in food availability and affordability. Sacramento County produces over $300 million of agricultural goods, yet over 40 percent of low-income adults in Sacramento County cannot afford enough food, ranking it 48th out of California’s 58 counties for food security.</p><p>Ubuntu Green works closely with Sacramento Yard Farmer, a business created by Sacramento native Rafael Aguilera, to build garden boxes across the region. He started Sacramento Yard Farmer when he realized the discrepancy between food abundance and availability in the region.</p><p>“We grow 90 percent of food for export, when there are people hungry and starving in this area. So it would be one thing to increase the amount of food that we eat locally, it would be another thing to increase the amount of food that people who don’t have food eat locally,” says Aguilera.</p><p>To address the issue of food security, the Edible Garden Campaign will dedicate 150 of the 350 target gardens for low and moderate-income families and include additional educational and technical assistant services.</p><p>Aguilera also coordinates an events series called Liberation Permaculture to provide a forum for discussion around the community’s relationship to food and larger environmental issues. He says that while issues of climate change can sometimes seem “out there” for some people, issues of food are fundamental.</p><p>Though the campaign has created greater consciousness about climate change and the benefits of local food, it has helped locals make healthier choices about the food they’re eating.</p><p>Mason has witnessed this change most notably in the youth in the community. When he began the Ubuntu Green’s Green Leadership Team (a.k.a. G-Squad), which involves local youth in creating community gardens, the attachment to junk food was apparent. But, he said, with access to alternative, healthy foods a shift occurred in their eating habits.</p><p>“In the beginning of the summer, they were walking into meetings with candy bars, and chips, and sodas…In a 3-month period they stopped badgering me to have junk food and hamburgers, and they started eating different foods,” says Mason. </p><p>Beyond the more obvious health benefits of local gardens, the campaign has created a sense of ownership in the community. The Green Leadership Team has created a community garden behind a store that used to sell liquor and now sells local produce instead. Mason says they are turning a “potentially bad space into a green space.”</p><p>Aguilera says he has already witnessed the positive effects of these community gardens first hand. One garden, built in an apartment complex was especially striking to him. The complex was known as “White Castle” because of its notorious reputation for drug use. When a new property manager took over and wanted to improve the space, Aguilera assisted her and the residents in building garden beds in the middle of the complex. A space that was once remembered for a fatal stabbing now stood filled with life: sunflowers, tomatoes and squash. Aguilera said the garden has inspired a new communal life in the complex.</p><p>“They have barbeques out there now; people come into the space rather than ignoring it or trying to stay away from seeing their neighbors. It’s become the focal point of that place. They call it ‘the palms’ now instead of ‘white castle,’” says Aguilera.</p><p>The work is not without its challenges. For one, Mason says the sheer diversity of the Sacramento region makes getting out the “green” message (and making it relevant) difficult. The Oak Park area alone is 60 percent people of color, with 23 percent Black, 11 percent Asian and 26 percent other. Thirty percent of residents are non-native English speakers. Ubuntu Green pools together extra resources to make meetings and information materials available in English, Spanish, Hmong and Vietnamese.</p><p>Beyond cultural relevancy, the survival of the Edible Garden Campaign would be helped greatly if city zoning ordinances were reformed. Mason says the main objective is to “take away the restrictions and the cost barriers to convert private and public land for community gardens. And then also in the city and county to make it easier to set up farm stands, and then also to make it easier for all these gardens to resell food into the community.”</p><p>An example of policy based on successful projects: In 2011, the Sacramento City Council approved an ordinance that allows private, residentially zoned vacant lots to be converted into community gardens where goods are sold on site. However, some advocates warn that the costs associated with converting vacant lots, in order to meet city permit requirements, is still out of reach for many private land owners and thus the community. Plus, the ordinance also does not apply to publicly-owned land.</p><p>Mason and Aguilera say that the next step to expand local food production is investment in urban agriculture research. They are both concerned about potential soil contamination in the community and, for the time being, have constructed raised beds with organic soil and compost from outside to avoid any risks.</p><p>“We have to be getting out there dealing with how do we clean up this land…Or at least get out there and test them,” says Mason.</p><p>Although there is a long way to go, Mason and Aguilera focus on the small changes both in action and perspective that have happened in the community. Gradually, people are accepting more sustainable living as a daily part of their lifestyle and making a contribution to the global effort of environmental responsibility, one garden project at a time.</p><p>“When a kid comes to me and says, ‘I’m recycling’ or ‘I’m doing composting,’ they now have made a significant impact on the community and the climate, just with their own efforts. If that is something that we can instill throughout the communities, then we’ll see an impact,” says Mason.</p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:19:00 -0700Rachel Morello-Frosch , Manuel Pastor, AlterNet726262 at https://www.alternet.orgFoodActivismEnvironmentFoodPersonal HealthWaterclimategaphome gardeningfood securityclimate changeUbuntu GreenCommunity Water CenterAGUA Coalition350.orgsacramentoFacing the Climate Gap: How Low-Income Communities of Color Are Leading the Charge on Climate Solutionshttps://www.alternet.org/environment/facing-climate-gap-how-low-income-communities-color-are-leading-charge-climate-solutions
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">California’s communities of color are implementing effective climate change responses that address social equity concerns while also building political momentum that can catalyze broader policy change. </div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p><em>Editor's Note: This is the introduction to a week-long series of profiles from some of California's most hard-pressed communities who are turning the tide on climate change with community-based organizations. Read the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/urban-releaf-how-one-community-group-saving-urban-neighborhoods-and-creating-jobs">first profile here</a> and the entire series <a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/climategap">here</a>.</em></p><p><em>This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>On September 30, 2012, California Governor Brown signed the “Climate and Community Revitalization” bills – AB 1532 and SB535. The first of these sets up a process to allocate revenues from auctioning allowances (that is, emissions permits) under the new market-based system that is part of the implementation of the Golden State’s 2006 <a href="http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cleanenergy/cleanenergy.htm">landmark legislation</a> to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). More significantly, SB 535 requires that a minimum of 25 percent of cap and trade revenue be invested in projects that provide benefits to environmentally burdened and socially disadvantaged communities – and it requires that 10 percent be <em>directly</em> invested in projects in those communities. </p><p>SB 375 is the result of a long struggle by a variety of groups to lift up the voices and concerns of low-income and minority communities in the global warming debate in California (and the nation). After all, research has demonstrated that low-income populations and communities of color suffer the greatest ill effects from climate change, not just internationally but also within the U.S. In a double-whammy, they are subject to the worst environmental conditions (like worse air quality) and have the highest vulnerability to extreme weather events (due to high rates of cardiovascular disease, for example). </p><p>We have called this reality the “<a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/documents/The_Climate_Gap_Full_Report_FINAL.pdf">climate gap</a>” and documented the problem and offered <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/documents/mindingthegap.pdf">solutions</a> in a series of previous research reports. But there is another “climate gap” that many environmentalists may not be aware of: <a href="http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/survey/S_712MBS.pdf">polls</a> have confirmed that Californians of color are actually more concerned than white residents about both pollution and climate change and, moreover, played a <a href="http://www.shelterforce.org/article/2766/californias_new_environmental_movement/">defining role</a> in defeating an oil company-sponsored <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_23_%282010%29">effort</a> to derail the state’s efforts to address global warming.</p><p>Beyond their leadership on the political front, low-income communities of color are also playing a central role in “facing the climate gap” through local projects on the ground – projects that offer examples of exactly how and where auction revenues ought to be invested to support communities. Today, a collaboration of researchers are releasing <em><a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap: How Environmental Justice Communities Are Leading the Way to a More Sustainable and Equitable California,</a></em> a report that chronicles the ways in which California’s community organizations, powered with the support of experienced organizers and concerned residents, have taken a “bottom-up” approach to address climate change and improve the lives and futures of residents in tangible ways.</p><p>Unfortunately, the voice of people of color and low-income residents is not always heard in policy discussions about climate change. For example, the state’s global warming law did include provisions to address environmental justice – but the concerns of social justice advocates that a “cap and trade” program could create air pollution “hot spots” went largely unaddressed. Indeed, the disagreement between environmental justice advocates and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) led to a lawsuit and a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/ab-32-california-cap-and-trade-_n_839190.html">2011 court ruling</a> that CARB had not adequately considered alternatives to “cap and trade.” Ultimately, however, the program was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/california-cap-and-trade_n_1022314.html">allowed to proceed</a>.</p><p>Despite these disagreements on how to approach climate change mitigation, environmental justice advocates have not been deterred from directly tackling issues of environmental health and climate change. To tell their stories, we are posting this week a series of profiles from some of the Golden State’s most hard-pressed communities and hard-working community-based organizations.</p><p>The report on which these profiles are based involved a year-long study of community-based efforts to confront climate change, ranging from tree-planting to deal with heat islands to urban agriculture to deal with food insecurity, from farmworker challenges to heat-related illnesses to cross-community collaboration that establishes “green zones,” from watchdog work on water quality improvement to innovative ordinances that address incompatible land uses, from the reworking of our transit system to the retrofitting of our energy-consuming buildings, from the use of the indigenous knowledge of First Californians to the design of more integrated land use planning for citywide “just transitions.”</p><p>While the specific climate-related challenges and solutions in each of the report’s case studies and this week’s featured profiles below vary, they all highlight one simple message: the communities most affected by the climate gap are creating solutions that can and should receive the sorts of investments envisioned under SB 535 – and scaling them up both in the state and the nation is all the more critical because of inaction at the federal level and the resistance of some industries to mitigation measures. </p><p>Indeed, while we highlight local stories in a single state, we think they give a taste of future possibilities for America as a whole. California has often led the nation on environmental issues and California’s communities of color are implementing effective climate change responses that address social equity concerns while also building political momentum that can catalyze broader policy change. With the future of the planet at risk, it may be time to support these efforts and forge a bottom-up approach to tackling both climate change and the climate gap.</p><p><em>Read the first profile in the series <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/urban-releaf-how-one-community-group-saving-urban-neighborhoods-and-creating-jobs">here</a>.</em></p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700Rachel Morello-Frosch , Manuel Pastor, AlterNet726236 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentActivismEnvironmentclimategapclimate changeglobal warmingcaliforniaenvirojusticeUrban Releaf: How One Community Group Is Saving Urban Neighborhoods and Creating Jobshttps://www.alternet.org/environment/urban-releaf-how-one-community-group-saving-urban-neighborhoods-and-creating-jobs
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Oakland, California&#039;s Urban Releaf provides job training and education for local youth, and creates a healthier community.</div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p><em>Editor's Note: This is part of series, <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap</a>, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice. </em></p><p><em>This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>After working in Soledad Prison in the Salinas Valley, Kemba Shakur moved to North Oakland and realized the prison grounds were more attractive than many of the treeless neighborhoods throughout her city. She decided to change this by planting trees, not only to improve the landscape but also the quality of life.</p><p>“The conditions that you see here on the Oakland streets are a lot of young people hanging out on corners, idle, with no jobs, underemployed and a terrible education...but then at the end of the day they are blamed. So, I wanted to do something to give people jobs as well as make them stewards of their own environment,” Shakur explains.</p><p>In 1999, Shakur founded <a href="http://www.urbanreleaf.org/">Urban Releaf</a>, a non-profit organization dedicated to planting trees in the urban landscape of Oakland as well as providing job training and education for local youth. The organization focuses its efforts primarily in East and West Oakland, otherwise known as the “flatlands” because of their geographic and socio-economic contrast to the nearby “hills” (where there is an abundance of trees – and wealth). Since 1999, Urban Releaf has planted 15,600 trees and worked with over 4,000 youth through their Urban Forestry Education program.</p><p>Urban Releaf is not merely a response to unattractive city streets (common not just to Oakland but to disadvantaged places nationwide) but also to the environmental hazard known as the “<a href="http://www.epa.gov/hiri/">heat island effect</a>.” This dangerous situation is common in urban areas in which there are few trees and an abundance of dark or cement surfaces that radiate heat and increase the temperature above those of surrounding areas – a dangerous duo when combined with more extreme heat waves associated with climate change.</p><p>The heat island effect is not an equal opportunity affair: <a href="http://www.springerlink.com/content/51k6411226124360/fulltext.pdf">research in California</a> and the U.S. shows that communities of color are likely to have far less shade from tree canopy and more asphalt and other impervious surfaces. And the effect is not only detrimental to immediate human health and comfort, but according to the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/hiri/">Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)</a>, it contributes to increased air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption as people try to fight the heat with air conditioning and other cooling measures.</p><p>Urban forests and tree-plantings have the power to alleviate the heat island effect as well as climate change itself. For example, shade trees help cool buildings and can reduce cooling costs by 30 percent. Also, 100 healthy, large trees remove 300 pounds of particulate matter and ozone and 15 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. </p><p>With the combination of freeways, industrial land uses and ports surrounding Oakland, the rate of asthma hospitalization are two to three times greater for children under 5 years of age living in North, West and East Oakland than in the rest of Alameda County.</p><p>Shakur says one of the most obvious impediments to health and wellbeing in communities affected by the climate gap is the lack of information.</p><p>“I think that people of color and poor people are the last ones to get information. So, they don’t understand the benefits of trees and the benefits of greenery as much as they probably did generations ago,” said Shakur.</p><p>The work of Urban Releaf also contributes to the greater psychological wellbeing within the community. Shakur says “health” goes far beyond issues of air quality.</p><p>“The health issues also involve issues of poverty, issues of food, issues of education, issues of unemployment. Being an organization of color, we are besieged with those social ills…a lot of the young people that we deal with, they have arrest records, they may have issues around housing, drugs, or jobs,” says Shakur.</p><p>Providing local youth and residents with a skill set, work ethic and pride in their community is one of the greatest assets of Urban Releaf, says Shakur. Urban Releaf’s Director of Urban Forest Education, Gregory Tarver, Jr. says the work of planting trees has improved “people’s connection to nature, connection to a greater sense of ownership and sense of community due to working on the trees.” And it has also contributed to a new generation of environmental leaders by spreading information about the benefits of urban forestry.</p><p>Urban Releaf has also collaborated with researchers from UC Davis, UC Berkeley and the USDA Forest Service Center for Urban Forestry Research in the Oakland Watershed Restoration and Protection Study. The study area includes a 1.4 square mile Watershed located in West Oakland. Urban Releaf is recruiting local youth to plant and maintain 1,800 trees in the study area. </p><p>Early results have revealed that those trees prevent 9 million gallons of contaminated water from entering the nearby San Francisco Bay. Studies such as this, says Shakur are helping locals realize the very “tangible” effects of the work they do.</p><p>While the work has empowered many youth, it cannot protect them all. Shakur says six kids in the community were killed in 2010, which included one of their former co-workers. Still, she hopes their work will provide youth with a positive alternative to more negative activities.</p><p>Gentrification is also a concern. While planting trees improves community quality of life, it also raises property values, and Shakur worries that this could also push out low-income families in West and East Oakland. A <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/uesd/uep/products/2/psw_cufr719_SFBay.pdf">2007 analysis</a> by the <a href="http://www.urbanforestrysouth.org/">Center for Urban Forestry Research</a> found that tree canopies contributed to $4.7 billion in increased property values in the San Francisco Bay Area.</p><p>Urban Releaf hopes to mitigate that effect by including local residents in the greening process through training and employment programs. To more effectively combine urban forestry with economic development, Tarver suggests that local hiring mandates should be included in city, state, and federal policies that fund urban greening projects.</p><p>“We have to think about it more economically, and more about economic sustainability for that community. You can’t just say, ‘oh, we’re going to plant trees.’ No, this is actually industry, green industry. So, if it’s a green industry we need qualify it as we would any other industry,” says Tarver.</p><p>The problems of heat and health are also key issues outside of urban areas like Oakland. In the predominantly agricultural Central Valley region of California, temperatures are regularly in the triple digits and the frequency and intensity of heat waves in the region is expected to increase. <a href="http://www.liderescampesinas.org/english/index.php">Líderes Campesinas</a>, a group formed 24 years ago to improve the health and well-being of farmworker families, is providing training on environmental health, heat stress, and worker rights such as access to water and shade and notifications about pesticide exposures and risks. Its members have worked to improve shade coverage at bus stops, increase the frequency of transit services, and have more frequent monitoring and enforcement of labor protections. </p><p>Both Urban Releaf and Líderes Campesinas are working so that communities most in need can beat the heat while also decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. But they are doing more than heat preparedness: they are integrating the local realities of health, economic, and environmental justice – and demonstrating that powerful answers can come from the grassroots. </p><p>Replicating and scaling their models – supporting urban forestry and protecting farmworker livelihoods – is critical. The California Air Resources Board includes urban forestry projects in the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) and Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) has introduced the Energy Conservation through Trees Act (H.R. 2095), which would fund partnerships between electric utilities and non-profit tree planting organizations to create shade tree programs. It’s time to take action – and planting a tree is not a bad place to start.</p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700Rachel Morello-Frosch , Manuel Pastor, AlterNet726259 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentActivismEnvironmentLaborclimategapclimate changeglobal warmingenvirojusticecaliforniaKaruk Tribe: Learning from the First Californians for the Next Californiahttps://www.alternet.org/environment/karuk-tribe-learning-first-californians-next-california
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Tribes like the Karuk are among the hardest hit by the effects of climate change, despite their traditionally low-carbon lifestyles.</div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p><em>Editor's Note: This is part of series, <a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/publications/FacingTheClimateGap.cfm">Facing the Climate Gap</a>, which looks at grassroots efforts in California low-income communities of color to address climate change and promote climate justice.</em></p><p><em>This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/">GlobalPossibilities.org</a>.</em></p><p>The three sovereign entities in the United States are the federal government, the states and indigenous tribes, but according to Bill Tripp, a member of the <a href="http://www.karuk.us/karuk2/index.php">Karuk Tribe</a> in Northern California, many people are unaware of both the sovereign nature of tribes and the wisdom they possess when it comes to issues of climate change and natural resource management.</p><p>“A lot of people don’t realize that tribes even exist in California, but we are stakeholders too, with the rights of indigenous peoples,” says Tripp.</p><p>Tripp is an Eco-Cultural Restoration specialist at the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources. In 2010, the tribe drafted an Eco-Cultural Resources Management Plan, which aims to manage and restore “balanced ecological processes utilizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge supported by Western Science.” The plan addresses environmental issues that affect the health and culture of the Karuk tribe and outlines ways in which tribal practices can contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.</p><p>Before climate change became a hot topic in the media, many indigenous and agrarian communities, because of their dependence upon and close relationship to the land, began to notice troubling shifts in the environment such as intense drought, frequent wildfires, scarcer fish flows and erratic rainfall.</p><p>There are over 100 government recognized tribes in California, which represent more than 700,000 people. The Karuk is the second largest Native American tribe in California and has over 3,200 members. Their tribal lands include over 1.48 million acres within and around the Klamath and Six Rivers National Forests in Northwest California.</p><p>Tribes like the Karuk are among the hardest hit by the effects of climate change, despite their traditionally low-carbon lifestyles. The Karuk, in particular have experienced dramatic environmental changes in their forestlands and fisheries as a result of both climate change and misguided Federal and regional policies.</p><p>The Karuk have long depended upon the forest to support their livelihood, cultural practices and nourishment. While wildfires have always been a natural aspect of the landscape, recent studies have shown that fires in northwestern California forests have risen dramatically in frequency and size due to climate related and human influences. According to the <a href="http://resources.ca.gov/">California Natural Resources Agency</a>, fires in California are expected to increase 100 percent due to increased temperatures and longer dry seasons associated with climate change.</p><p>Some of the other most damaging human influences to the Karuk include logging activities, which have depleted old growth forests, and fire suppression policies created by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1930s that have limited cultural burning practices. Tripp says these policies have been detrimental to tribal traditions and the forest environment.</p><p>“It has been huge to just try to adapt to the past 100 years of policies that have led us to where we are today. We have already been forced to modify our traditional practices to fit the contemporary political context,” says Tripp.</p><p>Further, the construction of dams along the Klamath River by PacifiCorp (a utility company) has impeded access to salmon and other fish that are central to the Karuk diet. Fishing regulations have also had a negative impact.</p><p>Though the Karuk’s dependence on the land has left them vulnerable to the projected effects of climate change, it has also given them and other indigenous groups incredible knowledge to impart to western climate science. Historically, though, tribes have been largely left out of policy processes and decisions. The Karuk decided to challenge this historical pattern of marginalization by formulating their own Eco-Cultural Resources Management Plan.</p><p>The Plan provides over twenty “Cultural Environmental Management Practices” that are based on traditional ecological knowledge and the “World Renewal” philosophy, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of humans and the environment. Tripp says the Plan was created in the hopes that knowledge passed down from previous generations will help strengthen Karuk culture and teach the broader community to live in a more ecologically sound way.</p><p>“It is designed to be a living document…We are building a process of comparative learning, based on the principals and practices of traditional ecological knowledge to revitalize culturally relevant information as passed through oral transmission and intergenerational observations,” says Tripp.</p><p>One of the highlights of the plan is to re-establish traditional burning practices in order to decrease fuel loads and the risk for more severe wildfires when they do happen. Traditional burning was used by the Karuk to burn off specific types of vegetation and promote continued diversity in the landscape. Tripp notes that these practices are an example of how humans can play a positive role in maintaining a sound ecological cycle in the forests.</p><p>“The practice of utilizing fire to manage resources in a traditional way not only improves the use quality of forest resources, it also builds and maintains resiliency in the ecological process of entire landscapes” explains Tripp.</p><p>Another crucial aspect of the Plan is the life cycle of fish, like salmon, that are central to Karuk food traditions and ecosystem health. Traditionally, the Karuk regulated fishing schedules to allow the first salmon to pass, ensuring that those most likely to survive made it to prime spawning grounds. There were also designated fishing periods and locations to promote successful reproduction. Tripp says regulatory agencies have established practices that are harmful this cycle.</p><p>“Today, regulatory agencies permit the harvest of fish that would otherwise be protected under traditional harvest management principles and close the harvest season when the fish least likely to reach the very upper river reaches are passing through,” says Tripp.</p><p>The Karuk tribe is now working closely with researchers from universities such as University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis as well as public agencies so that this traditional knowledge can one day be accepted by mainstream and academic circles dealing with climate change mitigation and adaptation practices.</p><p>According to the Plan, these land management practices are more cost effective than those currently practiced by public agencies; and, if implemented, they will greatly reduce taxpayer cost burdens and create employment. The Karuk hope to create a workforce development program that will hire tribal members to implement the plan’s goals, such as multi-site cultural burning practices.</p><p>The Plan has a long way to full realization and Federal recognition. According to the National Indian Forest Resources Management Act and the National Environmental Protection Act, it must go through a formal review process. Besides that, the Karuk Tribe is still solidifying funding to pursue its goals.</p><p>The work of California’s environmental stewards will always be in demand, and the Karuk are taking the lead in showing how community wisdom can be used to generate an integrated approach to climate change. Such integrated and community engaged policy approaches are rare throughout the state but are emerging in other areas. In Oakland, for example, the <a href="http://ellabakercenter.org/green-collar-jobs/oakland-climate-action-coalition">Oakland Climate Action Coalition</a> engaged community members and a diverse group of social justice, labor, environmental, and business organizations to develop an Energy and Climate Action Plan that outlines specific ways for the City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a sustainable economy.</p><p>In the end, Tripp hopes the Karuk Plan will not only inspire others and address the global environmental plight, but also help to maintain the very core of his people. In his words: “Being adaptable to climate change is part of that, but primarily it is about enabling us to maintain our identity and the people in this place in perpetuity.”</p> <!-- iCopyright Interactive Copyright Notice -->
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Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:35:00 -0700Manuel Pastor, AlterNet726267 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentActivismEnvironmentFoodPersonal HealthKaruk TribecaliforniaindigenousCalifornia Natural Resources Agencyclimate changewildfiresOakland Climate Action CoalitionEnergy and Climate Action PlanNational Indian Forest Resources Management ActNational Environmental Protection ActThe Best Reason for You to Ditch Fossil Fuel? Start with the Air You're Breathinghttps://www.alternet.org/environment/best-reason-you-ditch-fossil-fuel-start-air-youre-breathing
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<div class="field field-name-field-teaser field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Cleaning up the air is an issue that starts with your health, not just the planet&#039;s. </div></div></div><!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
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<!--smart_paging_autop_filter--> <p>There is good news and bad news about the clean energy transition. The good news is that <a href="http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ENE/GEA/doc/GEA-Summary-web.pdf" target="_blank">half the new electric generating capacity</a> installed worldwide in 2008-2010 was renewable. The bad news is that half wasn’t.</p><p>To avoid rapid global warming and its attendant human and economic risks, we need to accelerate the transition. We need to do more than slower growth in the use of fossil fuels: we need to cut their use substantially. This will require significantly ramped up investments worldwide in energy efficiency and clean energy.</p><p>One way to encourage this investment is to base public policies on the full range of benefits from reduced burning of fossil fuels – not only global benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but also local benefits from reduced emissions of particulates, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, mercury, benzene, and other toxic pollutants.</p><p>In the European Union, research has shown that the clean air benefits alone are sufficient to justify investments in energy efficiency and renewables. “The welfare effects of climate policy seem to be positive,” a 2006 <a href="http://www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/500116001.pdf" target="_blank">report for the Netherlands Environmental Agency</a> concluded,<em>“even when the long-term benefits of avoided climate impacts are not taken into account</em>.”</p><p>The clean air co-benefits of climate policy may be even greater elsewhere, in countries with less stringent air pollution controls than Europe. In a <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/Cooling_the_Planet_Sept2012-1.pdf" target="_blank">recent study</a> we cite World Bank data indicating that<em> </em>in the United States the human health damages from particulate emissions are six times higher per ton of carbon dioxide than the average for Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In China, the ratio is more than ten times higher.</p><p>It would be ironic if energy policies designed to internalize the external costs of greenhouse gas emissions were to ignore the external costs of co-pollutants. But there is an important difference between two. The benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions are global, whereas air quality benefits of reduced co-pollutant emissions are local.</p><p>The difference matters for three reasons:</p><ul><li><em>Efficiency: </em>From a climate change standpoint, it doesn’t matter where emission reductions occur. From an air quality standpoint, it can matter a lot. Co-pollutant damages vary depending on the type of fossil fuel, pollution control technologies, and the population density of the surrounding area. Efficient policy design would aim for greater emission reductions where the public health benefits are greater.</li></ul><ul><li><em>Equity: </em>Low-income and minority communities often bear disproportionate pollution burdens. In the United States, for example, blacks, Latinos and other minorities account for 50% of the human health impacts from <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/Cooling_the_Planet_Sept2012-1.pdf" target="_blank">air toxics emissions from petroleum refineries</a>, considerably more than their 31% share in the national population. Air quality benefits are in the sweet spot where equity and efficiency intersect.</li></ul><ul><li><em>Political salience: </em>Last but not least, the air quality benefits of reduced use of fossil fuels are immediate as well as local. For both reasons, they may be critical in building public support for clean energy policies. Neglecting these benefits in policy design would not only be tantamount leaving health care dollars lying on the ground – or floating in the air – it would also mean foregoing crucial allies in the battle to curb the use of fossil fuels.</li></ul><p><br />In our study, <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/Cooling_the_Planet_Sept2012-1.pdf" target="_blank">Cooling the Planet, Clearing the Air</a>, we outline a variety of ways to bring air quality benefits to bear on climate policy. Specific locations can be designated as priority zones under a carbon pricing system, whether a tax or cap-and-permit system. Similarly, specific industrial facilities and sectors can be assigned priority for emission reductions.<a href="http://www.cipa.cornell.edu/engagement/capstone/upload/Public-Engagement_Capstone_CCAC-Link.pdf" target="_blank">Community benefit funds</a> can be established to channel some of the rent generated by carbon pricing into environmental and public health investments in overburdened communities.</p><p>In the 20th century, environmentalists urged us to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_globally,_act_locally" target="_blank">“think globally, act locally.”</a> As we embark on the clean energy transition of the 21st century, we also need to think locally when acting globally.</p> <!-- All divs have been put onto one line because of whitespace issues when rendered inline in browsers -->
<div class="field field-name-field-bio field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <!--smart_paging_autop_filter--><p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; ">James K. Boyce teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he directs the program on development, peacebuilding and the environment at the </em><a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(13, 6, 166); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "><em>Political Economy Research Institute</em></a><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; ">. Manuel Pastor teaches at the University of Southern California, where he directs the </em><a href="http://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/home/" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(13, 6, 166); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "><em>Program for Environmental and Regional Equity</em></a><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; ">. They are the authors of ”</em><a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published_study/Cooling_the_Planet_Sept2012-1.pdf" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(13, 6, 166); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "><em>Cooling the Planet, Clearing the Air</em></a><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; ">,” a study commissioned by </em><a href="http://www.e3network.org/" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(13, 6, 166); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "><em>E3: Economics for Equity and the Environment</em></a><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "> and co-published with the </em><a href="http://www.jointcenter.org/" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(13, 6, 166); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; "><em>Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies</em></a><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px; ">.</em></p> </div></div></div>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:51:00 -0700James Boyce, Manuel Pastor, Triple Crisis721102 at https://www.alternet.orgEnvironmentEnvironmentPersonal Healthair pollutionfossil fuelglobal warming